A coronavirus ravaged Warrington Wolves gave debuts to Leilani Latu, Ellis Robson and Ellis Longstaff as they were without the services of seven regular first teamers due to self-isolation measures.

They elected to play the game when they could have postponed, their effort to stop the season descending into farce.

A win for the Wolves would lift them into second spot, level on points with St Helens who had just demolished the Huddersfield Giants.

A win for Hull, unless it was by more than forty-eight points would not make any difference to their league position but it would maintain their push for a top four place should the sides above them slip up over the coming weeks.

The Wolves were slight favourites, but FC had only been given a two point start on the coupon as the bookies and pundits thought that the enforced changes would make it a competitive game.

A win of any description for St Helens, over seventh placed Huddersfield Giants, would lift the red vee ahead of fierce rivals Wigan Warriors into top spot in the table.

With the Giants reputedly down to sixteen fit players a win looked unlikely, and a win by the fifty points they needed to lift them above the Leeds Rhinos looked like an impossibility.

Saints themselves were rocked by another positive coronavirus test today, but it was a player who was not part of the squad for the last Saints outing against Hull KR last weekend, the player in question now in isolation.

Saints were big favourites with the bookies, the Giants having been given a twenty point start on the handicap coupon, and you could get odds of 10/1 on a straight Giants win.

The Salford Red Devils and the Castleford Tigers were both looking to banish the memories of losses last weekend, especially Salford who took a drubbing at the hands of the Leeds Rhinos.

Neither side would be able to improve their league position, bar a big points win for Castleford, but this shortened season is all about getting and keeping momentum and both teams needed the win to reverse their fortunes.

Castleford were expected to get the win, but Wigan had been predicted for a big win over Hull KR in the previous game, the bookies can get things wrong.

There could be only one winner as the top of the table Wigan Warriors were first up in a coronavirus truncated round eleven as they took on the side propping up the rest of the table, Hull Kingston Rovers.

Coach Adrian Lam named a side which was almost unrecognisable from the one which narrowly beat the Castleford Tigers last time out.

Morgan Smithies had picked up a five game suspension for a couple of misdemeanours but Wigan made six other changes to their winning side.

The Warriors were massive favourites for the win with the Robins receiving a twenty point start on the handicap coupon.

Surely there was no chance that Wigan would slip up and open the door to the chasing pack.

Warrington were looking for a fifth straight win as they targetted third place in the league and to restore themselves to within two points of the league leaders.

Their opponents Wakefield Trinity knew that a win wouldn’t improve their league position, but it would get them within two league points of sixth spot in the table.

Wakefield were without a nine players including the high profile David Fifita who was stood down from the side for refusing to wear a GPS tracker, a requirement of COVID rugby league.

The bookies fancied a win for this rounds only home side in the last game of the weekend, but never rule out a side in adversity.

The Airlie Birds of Hull FC marked their return to post-Covid rugby action with a clear, if bruising, win over Huddersfield in a game which saw Marc Sneyd injured and leave the stadium on crutches while players from each team had to leave the game when they failed a head injury assessment after a crunching contact.

Hull came close to opening the scoring in the right corner a couple of times in the opening 10 minutes, but the Huddersfield defence held firm.

Nevertheless, it was the Black and Whites’ half back Albert Kelly who marked his 100th Super League game by dotting down under the sticks on 10 and a half minutes, with ever-reliable goalkicker Sneyd converting for a 6-0 lead.

St Helens climbed to second in the table after a close-fought tie with bottom-placed Hull Kingston Rovers.

Saints’ Alex Walmsley opened the scoring on the five-minute mark after a couple of errors by Rovers, with full back Lachlan Coote’s conversion making it 6-0 to the Merseysiders.

Coote’s opposite number Adam Quinlan was tackled in goal the second minute, gifting a second set to St Helens – who themselves lose the ball in the second tackled but then get it back on the 30m mark after a knock-on.

A set restart on the 10m line kept up the pressure and a relative simple offload from James Roby at dummy half allowed Walmsley to power over.

The Salford Red Devils find themselves at the wrong end of the early 2020 table as they sit off the pace on ninth spot, but they came up against a Leeds Rhinos side who were low on confidence after two successive big losses at the hands of Wigan and St Helens.

There was little to choose between the two sides, the bookies giving the Red Devils a two point start on the coupon and only slightly favouring the sixth placed Rhinos who had their eyes on a top four spot.

The Rhinos beat the Red Devils by 22-8 before lockdown, despite Salford being 8-6 ahead at the interval, but that was now over five months ago.

With the Catalans Dragons dealing with a number of positive coronavirus tests their game against the Wigan Warriors was postponed so rather than have a bye weekend, the Castleford Tigers were again called upon to step into the breach.

A win for the Warriors would guarantee them top spot at the end of this weekend’s rounds but a loss could open the door to any of the chasing pack with Warrington and St Helens both capable of passing the Warriors on points difference.

A win for Daryl Powell’s Tigers would lift them to at least fifth spot, two points behind the top of the table.

Wigan were the favourites for the win but the Tigers had only been given a six point start on the handicapping coupon as the Halliwell Jones Stadium in Warrington hosted the first match of the weekends bonanza.

The North Queensland Cowboys were looking to halt an eight-game losing streak as they set out to be the party poopers against a Cronulla Sharks side who needed the win to re-establish their four point lead in eighth place after a stunning win for the New Zealand Warriors earlier in the day.

The Sharks coach John Morris welcomed Andrew Fifita and Briton Nikora to his ranks while the Cowboys coach Josh Hannay had Connelly Lemuelu, Daejarn Asi, Tom Gilbert and Valentine Holmes in their seventeen-man squad.

The bookies thought that the Sharks were a shoo-in for the win but the Cowboys had nothing to lose and were there to spring a surprise.

There could be only one winner as the high-flying Sydney Roosters took on the crisis club Brisbane Broncos who acrimoniously sacked their coach Anthony Siebold during the week after a devastatingly poor season.

Former Hull FC coach Peter Gentle was at the helm for the strugglers and named Brodie Croft and Sean O’Sullivan in his side in place of Anthony Milford and Isaac Luke.

The home side had Boyd Cordner and Daniel Tupou back to strengthen an already strong side and they replaced David Fifita and Matt Ikuvalu.

The Broncos have won just once in their last thirteen outings, a win against the Canterbury Bulldogs while Trent Robinson’s Roosters were looking to build on last weeks win over the Titans.

The bookies gave the Broncos no chance as they battle to avoid taking the 2020 wooden spoon.

Two form sides were first up in Round Sixteen as the Paramatta Eels took on the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

It was third against fifth as the two sides jostled for play-off places.

An Eels victory would lift them to second in the table and within a point of the league leaders but of the Bunnies could beat the odds and register the win then they would find themselves in fifth place and knocking on the door of a top four finish.

Brad Arthur made one change to his Eels side bringing in Andrew Davey to replace Marata Niukore.

Wayne Bennet, back in the ground with his players for the first time since his lockdown indiscretion, had Corey Allen and Liam Knight in his Rabbitiohs side in place of Alex Johnston and Kurt Dillon.

North Queensland Cowboys are now playing for pride as finals football is now out of reach as the look upwards from fourteenth place on the ladder at a seventh placed Newcastle Knights who knew a win would lift them above the Bunnies and get them one game closer to the play-offs.

Newcastle coach Adam O’Brien made just one change to the side which narrowly beat the Sea Eagles last weekend, with Pasami Saulo replacing Daniel Saifiti, while Josh Hannay had Jensen, O’Neill and Cotter in his Cowboys side in place of Lemuelu, Pere and Robson as the Cowboys tried to halt a seven games losing streak.

A week after Wakefield Trinity were humiliated 58-0 by the Catalans Dragons, they travelled the short distance to the John Smith’s Stadium in Huddersfield to take on the same opponents in the re-organised sixth round of the Challenge Cup.

Both sides made a number of changes, the Dragons to rest some key players, but Trinity to try and avoid the onslaught that they experienced last time out.

The bookies couldn’t see past the Dragons making progress, and setting up a quarter final tie against the Salford Red Devils.

The last chance salon was looming into view for Wests Tigers as they took on a fifth placed Sydney Roosters, themselves needing a win to maintain their push for the top four and a play-off advantage.

The Tigers are currently outside the all important top eight and trailing the Cronulla Sharks by four points with five weeks of regular season action remaining after today’s game.

Both coaches made changes to the line-ups; Twal and Mikaele were back in the Tigers line-up after last weeks close win over the Bulldogs, while the Roosters called on the services of Morris, Lussick, Waerea-Hargreaves and Flanagan to try and get back to winning ways after their loss to the Storm.

After Melbourne Storm’s defeat yesterday at the hands of the Paramatta Eels, Penrith Panthers had the opportunity to pull three points clear at the top of the ladder as they took on the Cronulla Sharks who are currently fighting for a play-off position in seventh spot.

The Panthers were looking for their tenth straight victory in what has been a sensational season for them after they finished tenth, and outside the play-offs, in 2019.

The Panthers were unchanged from the side who got a scare last week against the New Zealand Warriors while the Sharks, looking for back-to-back wins after defeating the Titans last weekend, brought in Braydon Trindall for Shaun Johnson (who became a father overnight).

Game of the round in the NRL was the first up on Thursday evening as the third placed Paramatta Eels took on a Melbourne Storm side one place above them on the ladder as both sides looked to keep in touch with the Penrith Panthers at the top of the pile.

The Eels were unchanged from the seventeen who lost by 14-12 in a surprise defeat at the hands of St George Illawarra Dragons last weekend while Craig Bellamy made four changes to the side looking to extend an eight game running streak.

Vete, Johns (on debut), Schonig and Earl replaced Finucane, Hughes, Bromwich and Vunivalu.

The bookies fancied the Eels to pick up the ladder points, but it would need to be a massive win for Paramatta to jump over the Storm in the table as they have a significantly inferior points difference.

There is bound to be some raising of eyebrows at the latest round of Super League fixtures to be announced.

SKY TV have updated their schedules to indicate that all Round 11 matches, scheduled for the weekend of the 5^th and 9^th September, will be shown on the non-subscription SKY Sports Mix channel (Channel 121) and will also be available through the SkyGoApp.

The vertical movement of facial hair will be due to the timings of the games which have all been moved away from their Saturday and Sunday slots to be played on Thursday and Friday.

Working supporters Salford Red Devils and Castleford Tigers are likely to feel particularly aggrieved.

The Warriors played their ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card last week against Wakefield Trinity when they escaped with a one-point drop goal win.

Two hours later their opponents in the other Sunday Round Nine fixture, the Leeds Rhinos, took a beating at the hands of St Helens as they were nilled, humiliated and embarrassed.

Wigan knew that a win would put them two point clear at the top of the table but if the Rhinos could overcome the bookies odds and steal the points, then they could draw level with a congested top of the table on ten points.

Leeds gave a debut to new signing Bodene Thompson and welcomed back Konrad Hurrell.

Wigan were without the services of Thomas Leuluai, out with an ankle injury, and George Burgess who was serving a one game suspension.

Fresh from thrashing the Leeds Rhinos last weekend St Helens were back on home turf for an ninth round fixture against the Castleford Tigers.

Castleford needed to get back on the bike after they themselves were on the receiving end of a beating from the Catalans Dragons and coach Powell would expect much more of his troops against the defending Champions.

A Saints win would put them on the top of the pile but a win for Castleford would also lift them level with the three leaders on ten points in a congested top of the table.

Saints were massive favourites with the bookies and the Tigers had been given a sixteen point start on the coupon.

No-one but the most fervent of Castleford fans could see beyond a Saints win, and few believed that the Tigers could win their first league match in St Helens for forty years.